Vol. 475 No. 8
96 Mr. Cowen asked the Minister for Health the amount received or to be received by his Department in 1997 and in each of the past four years in respect of the pilot programme for the employment of people with disabilities; and the amount for each year which has been granted to enterprises operating under this scheme. [6256/97]
Limerick East): The pilot programme for the employment of people with disabilities in viable business enterprises was launched in 1994 for a three year period. At the end of the pilot phase it was envisaged that the business would be commercially viable having regard for the disabled subsidies to the businesses.
In November, 1994 six applications from the then Rehabilitation Institute — known as Gandon Enterprises, the commercial arm of the REHAB Group — were approved for funding. In October, 1995 a seventh project, SETC was approved for inclusion in the pilot programme.
Funding for the programme comprises three elements: capital grants, employment subsidies in respect of able-bodied employees and employment subsidies in respect of disabled employees. Provision for the programme is included in the Department's vote for services for people with disabilities and is based on the overall limit set for the programme each year. However, actual expenditure relates to the level of uptake of the grants and subsidies in any given year, which is determined by the participating enterprises. Participating enterprises received in full all funds requested under the programme.
The Department of Health's annual estimates of expenditure and actual expenditure under the scheme is set out in the following table. These figures include the costs for the administration and evaluation of the programme.
|
1994-95 |
1996 |
1997 |
|
|
(£m) |
(£m) |
(£m) |
|
|
Departmental Estimate |
3.6 |
2.4 |
1.5 |
|
Actual Expenditure |
2.6 |
1.6 |
NA |
